International Journal Of Environmental Research
Volume:10 Issue: 2, Spring 2016

The objective of the present work is to analyse the potential of using non-classical additions in concrete and mortar compositions such as coal bottom ash (BA) and biomass ash (Bio), as partial replacing binder of ordinary Portland cement. It is intended to deal with production of these type of wastes and its accumulation and contribute to the minimisation of carbon and embodied energy in construction materials. The aim is to identify the concrete and mortars formulation types where it is possible to get more benefit by incorporating BA and Bio. Based on the optimisation of the rheological properties of cement-based materials, mortars with repair function and concrete compositions were developed including 0%, 10%, 15% and 20% of BA and Bio as cement replacement. An assessment of the evolution of relative concrete compressive strength was calculated as a function of the relative solid volume fraction of several concretes. BA compositions present low resistance to high flow rates, increasing the ease of placement and vibration. BA seems to present more filler and pozzolanic effect when compared with Bio. BA mortars fulfil the compressive strength and stiffness requirements to be used as repair mortars, allowing the replacement of 15% or 20% of cement by an industrial waste. This by-product is able to work in the development of the mortar and concrete microstructure strength adopting a much more sustainable solution for the environment.

In developing countries such as Iran it was after economic crises and the increase in price of energy carriers and primary resources that industrial ecology was taken into consideration as a method in industrial states. 941 industrial states in Iran have a high potential in creating material and energy flow networks with the industrial ecology approach to prevent massive energy loss and valuable waste and enable optimization. The aim of this research is to study the challenges and opportunities of industrial ecology development in Iran by reviewing the experiences in Iran and other countries. Industrial states are in two groups in terms of clustering, concentrated and non-concentrated on a certain industry for each of which two examples including Charmshar & Salariyeh state and Semnan state are mentioned and analyzed, respectively. Many challenges were discovered in developing industrial ecology, two of which were more important than the others. The first challenge, an unsuitable clustering of industry in Iran with the industrial ecology approach thus disabling the adequate cooperation between complementary industries of material and energy flow networks and the lack of use of the potential by them. The second challenge, lack of a suitable information database to design and execute material and energy flow networks between industries, and without the necessary information, providing the basic needs for proceedings in relation to industrial ecology will be very difficult.

Dam construction providebenefits to local communities including hydropower generation and flood protection, but also harmsfish species by altering physical habitat andproviding pollution during the construction process. Evaluating river reaches habitat suitability level mayknow how the habitat and which extentaffected by dams. This study used a systems analysis approach to preliminarily evaluate habitat suitability level at before dam construction and during dam construction in Kraal River. A habitat model which included hydrodynamic and pollution transportwas used to evaluate theGarra fish (Garrapingi) habitat suitability level affected by pollution produced by dam building system and living waste water. Flow velocity, water depth, riverbed substrates and pollution concentrationwere selected as suitability indicators. Numerical model simulations were undertaken as follows:Firstly, the water depthand velocity were simulated and thesubstrate distributions were also surveyed. The pollution concentration was simulated and the corresponding suitability indexes were calculated based on the fish preference curves.After that, the HSI distributions in both before dam building and during dam building were obtained and compared.The results shown that the pollution from dam building system were severely influenced the Garra fish habitat. It is worth noted that the habitat suitability can be recover when thedischarge pollution concentration could reduce lower than 800mg/L.

Social media has quickly become an essential marketing and communication tool for private, public and non-governmental entities across the world to promote their organizational mission, daily events and publications. Many citizens use social media to post or share real time photos on a variety of environmental issues such as pollution or littering, forest fires, reported chemical spills in waterways, illegal dumping, and injured or deceased endangered animals. This simple, yet effective action can result in prompt awareness of an environmental incident and timely response from various agencies responsible for the environment. This paper presents a framework for evaluating the mechanisms that involve the public in environmental protection. It also investigates the role of social media in forming the environmental concepts. In this study, a systemic approach was adopted to investigate the environmental and social status of a target area and by preparing a suitable questionnaire and finally introducing theme and subtheme. According to the results, all the seven final themes showed the substantial impact of social media on attitude of the public and trend of participation in improving the status of Zayandeh-rood environment.

The paper demonstrates the result of changes in the physicochemical and biological properties in soil as a result of the operation of illegal dumping sites. Soil was sampled from the research points located on the outskirts of the city of Bydgoszcz (Poland) from the site not affected by illegal dumping sites (control C), within the dumping sites, having removed the waste layer (W), and 10 m away from the dumping sites (W 10). In the soil the content of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and sulphur, total content of copper, zinc, lead and nickel as well as the activity of enzymes were assayed. The content of Pb, Zn, Cu and Ni in the soil samples qualifies the soils as representing the soil category with natural content. The greatest activity of all the enzymes analysed was identified in the soil sampled from the control point affected by waste, whereas the highest content of macroelements was reported in the soil from the dumping sites (W 10). A high variation in the enzymes under study in soils confirms a high value of the coefficient of variation (CV >36%). The analysis of correlation confirmed the relationship between the content of organic carbon compounds and the content of zinc, lead, nickel. The soils show a slight value of the coefficient of contamination for heavy metals (CF

The stoichiometric parameter namely “Yield Coefficient” associated with growth of certain organism can be determined by direct measurement and/or calculated indirectly. The focus of this paper was on the anoxic yield of heterotrophic organisms using ethanol as an external carbon source during the denitrification process. In the literature, it was observed that yield coefficients can vary for the same substrate, which can be referred to the relative acclimation to the substrate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the yields determined through various catabolic and anabolic estimations. This paper presents ten different yield coefficient calculation methods under anoxic conditions in a sequencing batch reactor using ethanol as an external substrate. The range of anoxic yield using different calculation methods was between 0.423±0.014 to 0.512±0.021 mgCOD/mgCOD at 20C. It was concluded that there was no statistically significant difference between the yield values calculated from the different methods. Depending of what parameters can be measured correctly for a particular experiment or setup, a particular method can be selected using those parameters to calculate the yield.

A down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) reactor has been developed for sewage treatment, mainly in developing countries. This novel reactor employs polyurethane sponge material as a support medium, which promises a proliferation of a large amount of biomass, offering excellent pollutant removal capability. Three types of sponge medium were evaluated with respect to water distribution and oxygen mass transfer. Water was supplied to the device, which consisted of 40 pieces of sponge media connected in series, and a tracer experiment was carried out. The ratios of actual hydraulic retention time (HRT) to theoretical HRT were in the range of 25-67% depending on the type of support medium. By supplying deoxygenated water from the top of the device, the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient, KLa, was evaluated. Despite the non-aerated conditions, the KLa values of the support media were very high, in the range of 0.56-4.88 (1/min), surpassing those of other mechanically aerated processes. Furthermore, it was found that the suspended solids (SS) concentration in the influent played a role in increasing the actual HRT/theoretical HRT ratio, suggesting that managing the influent SS concentration is prerequisite for preventing clogging problems in the DHS.

In this study, eutrophication was investigated in Lake Ontario to identify the interactions among effective drivers. The complexity of such phenomenon was modeled using a system dynamics approach based on a consideration of constant and variable stoichiometric ratios. The system dynamics approach is a powerful tool for developing object-oriented models to simulate complex phenomena that involve feedback effects. Utilizing stoichiometric ratios is a method for converting the concentrations of state variables. During the physical segmentation of the model, Lake Ontario was divided into two layers, i.e., the epilimnion and hypolimnion, and differential equations were developed for each layer. The model structure included 16 state variables related to phytoplankton, herbivorous zooplankton, carnivorous zooplankton, ammonium, nitrate, dissolved phosphorus, and particulate and dissolved carbon in the epilimnion and hypolimnion during a time horizon of one year. The results of several tests to verify the model, close to 1 Nash-Sutcliff coefficient (0.98), the data correlation coefficient (0.98), and the low standard errors (0.96), have indicated well-suited model’s efficiency. The results revealed that there were significant differences in the concentrations of the state variables in constant and variable stoichiometry simulations. Consequently, the consideration of variable stoichiometric ratios in algae and nutrient concentration simulations may be applied in future modeling studies to enhance the accuracy of the results and reduce the likelihood of inefficient control policies.

In the last twenty years, due to a number of natural and anthropogenic reasons, many water sources have become poorer in quality with respect to micropollutants. An example of a micropollutant that needs to be removed is the chlorophenoxypropionic herbicide mecoprop (MCPP). MCPP is one of the nine pesticides used as an indicator to monitor pesticide concentrations in rivers because it is frequently found to exceed the 0.1 µg L-1 limit in England and Wales. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of different AOPs for the degradation of the herbicide Mecoprop (MCPP) in both deionised water (DW) and in surface water using different UV254 intensities and concentrations of reagents. For an initial MCPP concentration of 10 mg L-1, Photo-Fenton at natural pH using 20 mg L-1 of H2O2 and 20 mg L-1 Fe2 proved to be the most effective process in terms of degradation rate in both DW and surface water. When using an environmentally relevant concentration (1 µg L-1) and natural pH, if optimized, Photo-Fenton and UV/H2O2 processes achieved the best degradation results.

A recently described species of Dysdercus, named Dysdercus stehliki Schaefer, 2013 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pyrrhocoridae), found in Viçosa, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, feeds upon the seeds of fallen fruits of Sterculia chicha A. St. Hil. (Malvales: Sterculiaceae). The biology and immature stages’ descriptions of D. stehliki were assessed in two environments: laboratory and field. Individuals of the five nymphal instars were collected in March, 2011, in Viçosa, Minas Gerais State, Brazil on fruits of S. chicha. The presence of eggs, nymphs, and adults inside of the fruits was observed daily. Developmental time for eggs, nymphs, and adults were 9, 45 and, 30 days, respectively in the field. The five nymphal instars were described. First instar: overall color dark red, paler ventrally except for head. Second instar: overall color darker red (darker than first instar). Third instar: overall color slightly darker than 2nd instar. Fourth instar: slightly darker and browner than 3rd instar. Fifth instar: overall color brown red.

Corrosion makes huge economic and ecologic damage all over the world. Biologic corrosion of sewer pipes is considered as a serious limitation in economic perspectives. To prevent biologic corrosive damage, lining techniques can be applied by materials and aggregate resistant to attack bacterially in sewer pipes. The role of bacteria is that they convert Sulfur compounds into Sulfuric Acid which causes highly corrosion. In this study, some concrete samples were lined using polymeric materials called poly urethane (PU) and poly vinyl chloride (PVC) and the role of these linings was compared in terms of improving durability and resistance of concrete samples in acidic environment. The experimental results indicated that, after a 3-month period, in comparison with PVC, poly urethane showed better durability and resistance in acidic aggressive environment. Furthermore, having made strong bonds with concrete surface, PU lining minimized the penetration of acidic solution [generated by sewage fermentation in sewer pipes] toward the concrete body.

N-methylol dimethyl phosphonopropionamide (MDPA) is one of the most utilized fire resistant (FR) finishes for cotton fabrics, utilized as part of a formulation with trimethylol melamine (TMM) to acquire better crosslinking and enhanced FR properties. The system parameters of the finishing treatment were upgraded for better FR properties and low mechanical loss to the fabric by the response surface methodology utilizing Box-Behnken statistical designed experimental strategy. The impacts of concentration on the cotton fabric's properties (fire resistance and mechanical properties) were assessed with the regression equations. The optimum conditions by predicting the FR reagents focusing intact mechanical properties of the fabric were additionally studied. It was found that the parameters of crosslinking agents in the FR formulation have a prime role in the general FR properties of the cotton fabrics. The R-squared estimations of the considerable number of responses were above 92%, demonstrating the level of relationship between the predicted values by the Box-Behnken frameworks and the real test results.

The influence of long-term mixed organic and inorganic contamination on soil microbial activity, community structure and genetic diversity was investigated in soil samples from a coke oven plant located in Upper Silesia, Poland. The tested soils were heavily contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals. The microbial communities were characterized using the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) methods. Analysis of the PLFA profiles showed that the biomass of Gram-negative bacteria and fungi was affected by heavy metals but not by PAHs. Similar results were obtained for total microbial activity measured as the rate of fluorescein acetate hydrolysis. Statistical analysis of the obtained results revealed that heavy metals rather than PAHs were primarily responsible for the reduction in microbial activity and the differences in the microbial community structure as showed by PLFA. The DGGE analysis showed that the most contaminated soil had a very low biodiversity and richness but a very high evenness index. The correlation analysis revealed that the biodiversity and richness indices were negatively correlated with PAHs but not with heavy metals. However, there was a positive relationship between the evenness index and tested metals as well as the PAH content. The partial 16S rRNA sequence analysis showed that some of the clones were closely related to the genera Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas and Arthrobacter, which are well-known hydrocarbon degraders. Obtained results indicated that a high level of contamination suppress the some bacterial community member giving finally a reduction in the genetic diversity.

The influence of wind erosion on soil productivity was studied applying fan-forced wind in a wind tunnel located in the Campo de Nijar area in SE Spain where the main crops are cereals. Wind erosion is highly variable depending on the type of soil (aric-haplic Calcisols, aric-calcaric Cambisols or aric-calcic Luvisols, according to IUSS Working Group WRB, 2014) and the time elapsed since the last tillage. This is because of the formation of a physical crust after tillage, which protects the soil from wind. Crusting in our area is favored by the strong effect of dew, which makes crust form in from eight to ten days. Nutrient losses from wind involve an additional cost in fertilization for a crop to be economically viable. The repeated measures ANOVA shows that very fine sand and coarse silt are the fractions most susceptible to loss due to the effect of wind. The same statistical analysis shows that the smallest differences in fertility appear in OC and K2O, increasing in N and P2O5. Based on experimental data, we calculated the approximate cost of restoring organic matter, N, P2O5 and K2O losses to the soil proportional to wind erosion, on the base of mineral fertilizers usually employed and average prices. This does not include the contribution to maintaining short and long-term productivity and soil fertility required for growing, or natural contributions from wind deposits and runoff.

The present study modeled how future terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) changes spatiotemporally for the eastern Mediterranean biomes of Turkey using Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach (CASA) model, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, the four regional climate change scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5), and such ancillary data as percent tree cover, land use/cover map, soil texture, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). A mean decrease occurred by 3.2% in the present (2000-2010) mean annual NPP of the most productive biome-deciduous broadleaf forest-in response to the average increases by 5oC in maximum temperature, by 2oC in minimum temperature, by 276 mm in maximum rainfall, and the average decrease by 69 mm in minimum rainfall among the RCPs for the future (2070-2100) period. The maximum annual NPP increases occurred by 4.4% for evergreen needleleaf forest, by 3.9% for grassland, 3.4% for cropland, 2.2% for mixed forest, and 1.1% for shrubland in response to RCP 8.5. Deciduous broadleaf forest NPP appeared to be more vulnerable than the other biomes to the decreased rainfall and the increased air temperature of the water-limited growing season projected by the RCPs. Increasing winter and spring temperatures appeared to benefit the earlier spring green-up of grasses, evergreen needleleaf trees, crops, and shrubs. Our results suggest that a shift from deciduous broadleaf forest toward conifer forest may become more widespread, in particular, in the southern, low-altitude areas of the study region.